Joining collaborative software rival Agile Software Corp., which markets product chain management capabilities, MatrixOne Inc. announced Thursday its Supplier Relationship Management strategy along with new functionality to back it up.
MatrixOnes goal with SRM is to support all of the phases of a products lifecycle, from strategic sourcing, contract management and analysis to supplier development, spend analysis and design collaboration workspaces.
The companys SRM solution essentially enables members of a product design chain–design engineers, buyers and suppliers–to collaborate early in the innovation phase of a product.
With a current set of tools that help users collaborate with suppliers during the planning phases of a products lifecycle, MatrixOne is expanding that capability to include product development and program management.
The MatrixOne SRM suite adds one new application to the companys namesake Sourcing Central suite and enhances two existing apps, Supplier Central and Team Central.
Sourcing Central, marketed by Covisint as Quote Manager, provides users with e-sourcing and negotiation capabilities, association of line items to bill of materials, negotiation capabilities, decision support and contract management.
The upgraded suite now includes supplier qualification, development and certification to help users qualify suppliers; supplier scorecards; and product quality plans (for product quality improvement).
New features to Team Central include enhanced collaborative services that allow users to organize and secure access to content and documents in a virtual workspace; view and markup capabilities with 2-D and 3-D data; and review and approval workflow mechanisms that enable collaboration early in the product lifecycle.
MatrixOne officials in Westford, Mass., said the companys SRM software is differentiated from competitive offerings because it extends from collaborative product development and program management throughout the product lifecycle.